The world needs its engineers. They build what the human mind conceptualizes, they create things that did not exist before, and they advance human civilization, sometimes in neat and tidy increments, and sometimes in quantum jumps that seem out of this world.

The core issue in the conflict is not "settlements" nor "occupation" nor even land. After all Israel is the size of New Jersey. The Arab world controls more land than the USA. And Jordan, which is 78% of Balfour Mandate Palestine, alone is four times the size of Israel.

If President Obama loses this year, it is highly unlikely that he will run again in 2016. Only one president in US history has served non-consecutive terms and Obama would leave office with the perception that he was the man who failed to get the American economy going again. So it will be left to others to put themselves forward as possible candidates.